Dutch Artillery Museum

[Martin]

Hi,
Last September I went with my son to the Dutch Artillery museum in 't Harde, situated on a military site in the midlle of the Netherlands.
Here are some pictures I took.
The first 3 show a large diorama of a french artillery unit.
From 1810 till 1813 The Netlerlands were a part of the French Empire.






Here is a model of a Dutch artillery trumpeter uniform 1815:



Inside the (small) museum there is a 8 pounder gun that had been at the battle of Waterloo (the sign said...)





Also some modern equipment is shown there:
This is a M110 Mechanized gun with 205 mm barrel.
In 1982 I was in the military (draft) at a similar unit equipped with the M107 wit a 175mm barrel. That could drop the granades 35km furher.
And in Germany (Munster Süd) we did.

[Benno]

That is one big gun!

Nice pictures Martin, must take a look there myself one day.

[Martin]

Hi Benno,
Mind this: because the museum is on a militaty site it is not always open.
Look for the opening days at:
www.nederlandsartilleriemuseum.nl
Here you find a lot of information.
Most is in Dutch.

[holger]

Hi Martin,

thank you very much for the fine pics. They give me some ideas of making conversions with my zvezda french artillery. The trumpeter looks very unconventional to me. Do you have any hint if it was a foot, horse or guard uniform?

Btw: we shot with the 175mm gun M109 at Munster... a long time ago.
Though it is a heavy artillery unit we tested some direct shots on some targets representig a broken through enemy tank. The hole earth was shaking and somebody spilled his soup because he was so surprised...
Meanwhile the M109 is substituted by the Panzerhaubitze 2000.

[Martin]

Hi Holger,

The Dutch artillery trumpeter is wearing the uniform of the Horse artillery.
To be specific: the regiment Gele Rijders, direct descentants of the HA battery of Capt. Krahmer de Bichin. This battery was at Waterloo connected to the Brigade of Col Detmers and the 3rd Netherlands Inf Division of Gen Chassee. This battery opened fire on the last attack of the Guard and with great success.
An example of this uniform can be seen in the Osprey MAA 355 Wellington's Belgian Allies 1815 at plate H, but there with shako.
The Kolpak came just after Waterloo.


The M107 was designed to shoot long ranges. In the early 80ies they were disigned to shoot at distribution complexes behind enemies lines.
We saw then on TV a good example how that works in Israeli warfare in the Lebanon.

[holger]

Indeed, it was the colpack that irritated me, thanks for the explanation.

[Martin]

The Gele Rijders Artillery regiment is the oldest artillery regiment in the Royal Dutch Army. When a child is born in the royal family they are the one who give salute to the child. It depends how much salute-shots on the fact whether is't a boy or a girl. Crown Prince William-Alexander has now 3 daughters. So the last 6 years they had some extra practice.
BTW they use WW2 british 25-pounders (only for ceremonial purpose).
I think in normal life they use the Panzerhaubitze (German Howitser on Leopard II base)

[Peter]

Hey Martin. I also had the luck to visit that museum at t'Harde (two times to be right). A very nice museum indeed! There are more diorama's there, as I can remember, but other periods as the diorama you show on pictures. This museum shows the history of artilllery just from the beginning until now.
I can recommend this museum to everyone who is interested in military history.

Nice contribution Martin, it remembers me of good times.

Greatings Peter

[Martin]

Hi Peter,
Yes there are also some Medieval diorama's and also medieval artillery equipment. From the period of the 80th Years war (1568-1648) Holland was at war with Spain. It took a very lokg time to get independant form Spaish rule (sorry Rafa) We still have some songs and saying about that time. Piet Hein and the conquering of a fleet loaded with silver somewhere in the Carabean. The Duke Alva who lost a small town to the Watergeuzen. (Den Briel) etc. THe leader of the forces was William of Orange. Our Queen is a descentant of him.

[Peter]

Yes Martin, I understand what you mean. Even for us it took years to get independant from the Netherlands .
Maybe a small question about "Willem van Oranje". Didn't you have more of them who had the same name and number? For example the one who was at Waterloo, and gave us a lion on a big hill because he's got wounded on that spot.
Can you explaine to me why they both called "Willem I"?
Thank you.

Greatings Peter

[Martin]

Hi Peter, From William of Orange on there were a lot of descentants who were involved in the "liberation" of Holland. After the peace in 1648 the prince of Orange-Nassau had the title of "Stadhouder" The first one had number I, It went on till number V. Stadhouder William III was maried to Mary of England and became also King of England. Stadhouder William V had to flee to England when France invaded Holland in 1798. England sent troops over but that had no success. Later his son became King William I of the Netherlands (also of Belgium, which we lost in 1830, but you know that). His son was wounded at Waterloo and became later King William II.
So we had two Williams I: one stadhouder from 1648 and one king from 1814.
The Butte de Lion was made for Prince William (later king W II).

[Peter]

Thank you Martin. Now it's clear for me. And we may be two independant country's now, our army's are working perfectly together (marine and airforce for example), so we are in a certain way one country again.

Greatings Peter.

[Martin]

Hi Peter,
Yes you are right.
And not only by language (tja dit forum is in het engels).
But also by "Brussels laws" as they say here.